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1 dead, trail of blood in Pear Park

Gunfire early Sunday in Pear Park left one person dead and another wounded, according to the Mesa County Sheriff’s Department.

The names of the shooting victims have not been released. One person was detained by deputies but later released, sheriff’s spokeswoman Mary Gonzales said.

Gonzales gave no explanation for why the person in custody was released, but said investigators were not seeking a suspect.

The shootings occurred around 2:20 a.m. at 3007 Rood Ave. along a dead-end portion of Rood Avenue just east of Colorow Drive and south of D 1/2 Road. The area is east of 30 Road.

Deputies sealed off Rood Avenue east of Colorow Drive. Homes on the northeast and southeast corners of Rood Avenue at Colorow Drive were surrounded by yellow crime-scene tape most of the day Sunday.

The Sheriff’s Department would not let any vehicles leave Rood Avenue east of Colorow Drive. Investigators examined a red and white sport utility vehicle in a driveway along the south side of Rood Avenue where the shooting occurred. The rear window was shattered.

Robin Lucero, who lives two doors east of the driveway, said there was a blood trail leading from the SUV to the driveway of a house on the north side of Rood Avenue. The home, which faces Colorow Drive, has a sign hanging on a backyard fence that is clearly visible from where the shooting happened. It reads: “Trespassers will be shot. Survivors will be shot again.”

Another neighbor, Stewart Miller, lives one house north of Rood Avenue on Colorow Drive, next to the home where the blood trail led. He said the residents of that home have friends visiting nearly every weekend. On Halloween night, he noticed many people at the residence before he went to bed and assumed they were having a party.

“We didn’t think nothing of it,” Miller said.

At 4:20 a.m. Sunday, he said, deputies knocked on his front door, asking whether he saw or heard anything. Miller said he heard nothing until deputies informed him of the double shooting.

“We were kind of shocked,” Miller said.

Residents who live behind the house on the south side of Rood Avenue, where neighbors said the shooting happened, were also surprised.

“I never heard a thing,” said Russell Dunton.

Deputies knocked on the Dunton’s door at 4:30 a.m., said his wife, Wilda. She said the person who lives in the neighboring home along Rood has two children, which she assumed stayed at the house only on the weekends. “This is a very quiet, beautiful neighborhood,” Wilda Dunton said.